http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/pulsar_pair_040504.html

The Heartbeat of a Dying Star

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 06:30 am ET
04 May 2004

In a stellar version of the walking dead, one near-corpse of a star jumpstarts the heartbeat of its close companion as the two spiral toward an eventual embrace that will destroy them both.

The intriguing setup involves two neutron stars, the collapsed remains of regular stars which are now so dense a teaspoonful would weigh billion tons or so on Earth. The stars are so massive that they curve space and time in ways astronomer think they can predict.